Sunday, July 12, 2009

Mt. Nebo

Before Katie comes home from California and steals my thunder with her report from California, I figure I better log my hike yesterday up Mount Nebo. May as well do it now while my aching body recovers. For those those of you not from around here, Mount Nebo is the highest point in Utah that's near civilization, basically. Anyway, with Katie out of town, I decided to join up with my friend Devin, whose wife was, interestingly enough, also out of town.

We left at about 5am, and hit the trail around 6. It started out pleasant enough. I mean, this looks nice enough, doesn't it? Very green, scenic, not terribly steep.

We saw some deer on the trail.

This was cool. We saw some glaciers (snow fields, technically) up on the mountain, then in the valley you could see a path of destruction that the avalanches leave behind in the winter.

The first couple of hours were pretty tough, but the views were great.

Finally, after some exhausting climbing, the end is in sight. I'm tired and ready to be done. We just need to get to the top and we can finally rest. What you see here takes about an hour to climb- it really is about as steep as it looks. I feel like I'm dying.We finally get to the top of this, and here is what we see:

There is another peak to climb. We pretty much just climb up the ridge here, which takes about another 45 min. or so. Fortunately, there are no more peaks- we're on the top:

Me and Devin here- lucky Devin's wife happened to have left this lovely wool knit jacket in the car that he was able to grab before we hit the trail. Rest assured, he is a very manly man. Unfortunately, it was freezing up there and the wind was blowing.

Some clouds rolled in with the wind, and we could see it raining all over the valley.

We even got pelted with some freezing rain (little ice balls) for a minute up there.

Ever wonder where ladybugs come from? They all hatch on Mt. Nebo. All of them. In the world. There were thousands of them, tens of thousands, crawling all over the rocks, concentrated in one particular spot on the peak.

Finally came the descent. Getting down from the highest 1/2 mile or so of the peak itself was almost as difficult as getting up was exhausting:

I had to check out these rocks on the way down. Where's a good lake for skipping rocks on when you need one?

It was a fun hike to do. The views were spectacular and it was great to get out. Would I do it again? Not a chance. Not in the kind of shape I'm in, anyhow. I've done a lot of mountain hiking, but this was a killer. I'm afraid me and mountain hiking are going to have to part ways for a while. Maybe I'll go back and hike Timpanogos and probably Angel's Landing again one day. In the meantime, though, I wish the mountains the best. We've had some good times. I hold you in high regards, Nebo, but I think this is for the best for both of us.

HEY!!!! That's Pat's Sweatshirt! hahah!! So you know if you wanna bring that and the Lord of the Rings books with ya next time you come... well we would love it! :) Nice hike. I totally would have given up when I saw that second peak! Good for you!!! When are you guys moving here???

McKay - tell Devin that I still remember babysitting him!! Nice sweater, too - I got a good laugh out of that! Looks like it was an awesome hike, but I don't blame you for not wanting to do it again. Kendy :)